Western Growers’ Science and Federal Affairs teams continue to work closely with allied trade associations to strengthen funding for food safety education and outreach. These efforts remain the most cost-effective tools for improving produce safety and advancing FSMA’s prevention-based framework.

Recent funding fluctuations have highlighted vulnerabilities in the national education and outreach infrastructure. Western Growers is advocating for consistent, predictable funding by restoring prior support for the Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) essential to sustaining trainer pipelines, supporting timely and consistent interpretation of FDA requirements and preserving multilingual outreach. We also support protecting and rebalancing Cooperative Agreement Program (CAP) funding to explicitly prioritize education and training, including direct grower support, hands-on training without burdensome approvals, supporting extension staffing and flexible training delivery models.

Outreach, education and technical assistance are not optional — they are core mission functions that enable compliance at scale and advance FSMA’s prevention goals. Western Growers will continue to champion public–private collaboration and engage with government partners as produce safety strategies evolve.

If you are experiencing challenges related to FSMA compliance or other regulatory requirements, we encourage you to reach out to the Western Growers Science team. We are here to support you with guidance and resources.